Part of thread: The master–slave dialectic and the struggle for recognition
Labour and the transformation of the slave
1 min read
The slave transforms the thing through labour; in doing so he transforms himself. He learns to delay desire, to work on the world, to make it his. The master, by contrast, only consumes what the slave produces. The master depends on the slave for the object and for recognition—but the recognition he gets is from someone he does not recognise as free. So the truth of the relation is the reverse of its appearance: the slave is on the path to freedom.
Averrois
/u/averrois
Knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect.
Thread
- Labour and the transformation of the slave/u/averrois· 1 reply
How labour and fear of death prepare the slave for genuine self-consciousness while the master remains in a dead end.
- Kojève and the end of history/u/averrois
Kojève's influential reading: recognition, desire, and the "end of history" as a political interpretation of the master–slave.
- Recognition as the structure of self-consciousness/u/averrois
Recognition as the necessary structure of self-consciousness, not just a desire among others.
- Fanon and the colonial rewriting/u/averrois
Fanon's use and critique of the master–slave dialectic in the colonial context: recognition and the need for a different dialectic.